The violent events that took place near what is now Walla Walla on November 29, 1847 served for at least a century as a creation myth for the state of Washington, a legend of heroic sacrifice to noble ideals. But the traditional story of the Whitman Mission and the attack on its occupants is just …
I met Rob Phillips a few weeks ago. He had on a mask. So, I might not be able to recognize him on the street after COVID-19. I have, however, read his Yakima Herald Republic column for years. I love the comfortable way he writes, never exuding the expert outdoorsman vibe that keeps others from …
The gorgeous writing, vivid setting, compelling characters, and engrossing story aren’t even the best parts of this novel. Instead, I just keep marveling at how Jess Walter takes events from history to illuminate our present while keeping them rooted in their own time, from the labor movement to class, race, and gender equality and civil …
In 2008 I quit an all-consuming sales position in Missoula and tried to move with my husband to Lake Pend Oreille in the slim Idaho panhandle, where we hoped to rededicate ourselves to our writing. Mother nature had other plans for us, blanketing the Inland Northwest with record-breaking snowfall and rendering our little cabin in …
This mesmerizing memoir by poet and translator E. J. Koh explores immigration, motherhood, familial bonds, love, trauma, forgiveness and reconciliation. It takes the reader from San Francisco to Korea to Japan. I found it to be a gorgeous, lyrical, painful, poignant and hopeful read. –Janis Segress, Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, WA Explore language and …
To this reader, two of the scariest book and life scenarios are that of cybersecurity and cyberterrorism. Richard Sandford in his novel The Soul Snatchers has achieved both scenarios. The time is the near future. The locales include the San Juan Islands in Washington State, Seattle, Portland (Oregon) and the Bay Area of California. The …
From Shelf Awareness for Readers November 15, 2019: Welcome to the small town of Odsburg, Wash., where mountain lions live in basements, a “strange skinless guy” hangs out in the town square, and a couple is so hungry they eat themselves, literally, out of house and home. Odsburg by Matt Tompkins (Souvenirs: And Other Stories), is narrated …
SLAY is so much more than just another book about video games: it’s about a girl who carves a space in the world for herself and completely owns it, and it’s about the microaggressions and the can-I-touch-your-hairs and all the things that come with being one of a handful of black kids in a school. …
I should perhaps be focusing on Coats’s newest book, the middle-grade fantasy The Green Children of Woolpit, but it’s just come out and well, I haven’t read it yet. But I really want to, based on how much my daughter and I enjoyed Coats’s earlier novel, The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming. I can’t …
Karl Marlantes once again brings us an epic that can’t be put down, this time set in the forests and on the rivers of southwest Washington, all soon to be engulfed by logging and fishing. Deep River combines the story of immigrant siblings (from Finland) and a larger Scandinavian community, the desires of families escaping …
